Carstairs, Alberta, has a dog bylaw that restricts three "breeds". One isn’t a breed at all and the other two are misspelled!
They’ve also added the usual catch-all phrase as well, but this one is a little strange. It reads, "and any type of dog of shared breeding with one of these classes of breeds". Not quite sure what a "class of breed" is.
Clearly, the people who created this law had no idea what they were writing.
How can you decide that a certain type of dog is dangerous when you can’t even spell the breed names? If the extent of your knowledge of dogs is so small that you can’t write your bylaw properly, then how can you possibly claim to have enough knowledge of dog behaviour to determine that type A will act one way and type B another way?
Dog Control Bylaw 728 (Adobe Acrobat PDF file)
And talk about micro-managing. This town of around 2,700 people has a longer list of offences than I’ve seen anywhere else (along with the individual fines per offence for first, second and third offences). In fact, from what I can tell, this town’s animal control bylaws are more complicated and restrictive than those of the entire city of Toronto, which has 1,000 times as many people!
Dog Control Bylaw 800 (Adobe Acrobat PDF file)
Here’s the list, just for fun reading. Interesting that the fine for a dog chasing, biting or injuring a person is the same as that for upsetting waste receptacles, yet the fine for not licensing a restricted dog is double that and the fine for failing to confine or leash a restricted dog (regardless of temperament) is FIVE times the fine for a dog biting a person!
Running at large
Bite a person
Injure a person
Chasing a person
Biting at, barking at, chasing livestock, bicycles, automobiles or other vehicles
Barking, howling, or disturbing the quiet
Damage to property or other animals
Upsetting waste receptacles
Dog in prohibited area
Failure to immediately remove Defecation from Property not the owners
Failure to obtain license for restricted dog
Failure to confine restricted dog
Failure to harness or leash restricted dog
Failure to report dog with rabies
Failure to confine dog with rabies
Failure to keep confined dog with rabies
Failure to obtain license for dog
Failure to obtain hobby license for dog
Interference with or obstruction of animal control officer
Untying an animal
Opening a gate, door or other opening and allowing an animal to escape
Tease, torment or annoy an animal
And don’t get me started on the hobby/breeder/commercial dog kennel bylaw! You have to have a breeder kennel licence if you want to keep TWO dogs that weigh more than 25 pounds each or THREE dogs that weigh 25 pounds or less each. You have to have approval from all neighbours within 500 feet, public safety inspections, and a location inspection, to keep TWO dogs!